Dutch rider feels Swiss form means he deserves a place in France
After his second place in yesterday’s rainy Tour de Suisse stage, Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Transitions) believes that he’s earned his place on the American team’s Tour de France roster. The Dutchman was part of the three-man stage-winning break, but missed the move made by BMC Racing’s Marcus Burghardt and finished 2 seconds behind the German.
“Maybe I should have gone earlier,” said Maaskant to De Telegraaf after watching the final kilometre on screen, “but I wanted it to finish in a sprint, where I probably would have been fastest.”
The 26-year-old feels that his performance should be enough to get him a start in Rotterdam next month though. “I think they’ll really want to take me now,” he said. “To get to the Tour they told me I had to show good form in Switzerland. With this second place I’ve just shown it.”
2010 would be Maaskant’s third successive Tour de France; he was called up to last year’s race as a last minute replacement for the injured Dan Martin. On stage 14 between Colmar and Besançon he was part of the 14-man break and was named most aggressive rider. He missed the stage-winning move by Russian champion Serguei Ivanov though and finished 4th, his best result in the race to date.
“It’s a bit of a gamble deciding what to do,” he said. “Maybe I should have chased Burghardt immediately. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t get the victory, but I’m happy to have shown myself at the front.”
With this year’s race starting in Rotterdam, in Maaskant’s native Netherlands, there is even more incentive than usual for him to make the nine-man team. While many teams have already released their provisional rosters for next month’s Tour de France, Garmin-Transitions has yet to make any such announcements.